his head on his hands and groaned in discouragement.
Doctor Carey whirled the chair so that it faced him before the Harvester
realized that he was not alone.
"What's the trouble, David?" he asked tersely.
The Harvester lifted a strained face.
"I came for help," he said.
"Well you will get it! All you have to do is to state what you want."
That seemed simplicity itself to the doctor. But when it came to putting
his case into words, it was not easy for the Harvester.
"Go on!" said the doctor.
"You'll think me a fool."
The doctor laughed heartily.
"No doubt!" he said soothingly. "No doubt, David! Probably you are; so
why shouldn't I think so. But remember this, when we make the biggest
fools of ourselves that is precisely the time when we need friends, and
when they stick to us the tightest, if they are worth while. I've been
waiting since latter February for you to tell me. We can fix it, of
course; there's always a way. Go on!"
"Well I wasn't fooling about the dream and the vision I told you of
then, Doc. I did have a dream--and it was a dream of love. I did see a
vision--and it was a beautiful woman."
"I hope you are not nursing that experience as something exclusive and
peculiar to you," said the doctor. "There is not a normal, sane man
living who has not dreamed of love and the most exquisite woman who came
from the clouds or anywhere and was gracious to him. That's a part of a
man's experience in this world, and it happens to most of us, not once,
but repeatedly. It's a case where the wish fathers the dream."
"Well it hasn't happened to me 'on repeated occasions,' but it did one
night, and by dawn I was converted. How CAN a dream be so real, Doc?
How could I see as clearly as I ever saw in the daytime in my most alert
moment, hear every step and garment rustle, scent the perfume of hair,
and feel warm breath strike my face? I don't understand it!"
"Neither does any one else! All you need say is that your dream was real
as life. Go on!"
"I built a new cabin and pretty well overturned the place and I've been
making furniture I thought a woman would like, and carrying things from
town ever since."
"Gee! It was reality to you, lad!"
"Nothing ever more so," said the Harvester.
"And of course, you have been looking for her?"
"And this morning I saw her!"
"David!"
"Not the ghost of a chance for a mistake. Her height, her eyes, her
hair, her walk, her face; only something terr
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